


origami

by saraheli



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Not K-Pop Idols, F/F, Fluff, Light Angst, chuuwon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-17 18:30:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16101335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saraheli/pseuds/saraheli
Summary: It can sometimes take a push to overcome your fears, and for Jiwoo, a paper fortune catcher might be precisely the push she needs.





	origami

Kim Jiwoo had liked girls since the beginning. There had been no learning period or time of questioning; ever since her first day of primary school with all of the other pretty little girls,  Jiwoo had known that her future included no boys. At age fourteen, she’d gone out on her first limb only to have her first baby heartbreak when Ha Sooyoung turned her down so sweetly, leaving a glimmer of hope in Jiwoo’s eyes despite the sheer lack of possibility.

Jiwoo, thusly, became the pining type. She used to be someone who took the first step, who thought that nothing scarier than not getting something because you hadn’t even tried, but after learning first-hand of the notion that not all girls were eligible for her affection. Not everyone would accept her love whether it was directed at them or not, too.

Against her own enthusiasm and heart that would swell with so many feelings for so many people over the years, Jiwoo wouldn’t push the envelope again until her first year of university. Park Chaewon sat beside her in first-year music; she smelled subtly of vanilla and rose, and her handwriting swirled across the paper in slanted curls. She spoke politely and sweetly, and she offered her notes to Jiwoo when the professor changed the slide too quickly. 

“Are you a first year, too?” Jiwoo offered, tilting her head towards the other girl shyly in a whisper. 

Chaewon nodded, her lips quirking up at the corners. “Mhm,” she chuckled, eyes flicking back up to the presentation as she clearly tried to divide her attention between the class and the other girl. “I’m Chaewon.”

“Jiwoo,” she continued, her voice softening even further as she didn’t want to interrupt the class. 

“It’s nice to meet you,” Chaewon smiled, the gesture bright and sparkling, and turned back to the presentation. She tucked a blonde curl behind her ear, earning a little sigh through Jiwoo’s nose. 

Once class was finally dismissed, she wanted to speak again. She wanted to ask her for coffee, for the get-to-know-you details of her life, for her phone number; but she chickened out and got nothing more than a whimsical wave of Chaewon’s fingers until the next class came. By then, luckily, Jiwoo had discovered a myriad of things to say that would fill their walk from the building together. 

She learned quite a few things that day: 1) Chaewon came from Incheon, 2) She was studying music and dance (ballet and jazz, specifically), 3) She lived in the same building as Jiwoo, and 4) She had absolutely no dinner plans that evening. 

“Oh, well, I was wondering if maybe we could get dinner together. I don’t know anyone here, and, you seem really nice, so…” Jiwoo grinned and gave a playful little shrug. “How about it?”

Chaewon chuckled and graciously accepted the invitation with a little bow of her head. This would be the first of many meals the two girls would share together; from lunches sneaked into the library to midnight dinners warmed in a microwave, it came to be that the only requirements for a pleasant meal were food and each other. 

“How much work do you have tonight?” 

It was Friday, and, naturally, Jiwoo was hoping that the two of them could do something aside from studying for once. The very idea made her heart leap; they could finally delve into waters deeper than “how are you” and “did you do the homework,” and that was a possibility that stretched Jiwoo’s desires farther into the realm of romance. She had been stunned by Chaewon, of course, the first time they had seen one another, but getting close made that lonesome infatuation with the game of love dim as their friendship grew. New closeness on the horizon set it alight once again.  

“Not much,” Chaewon shrugged, flipping through a few papers on the floor in front of her. “Why?”

“I was  _ hoping  _ we could do something. Not like, go out or anything—I mean, unless you want to!—but I was thinking we could stay in and, I don’t know, relax. Talk, watch a movie, draw or something…” Jiwoo grinned as she continued to explain, not noticing the way that Chaewon’s eyes softened as she did so. 

“Yeah, we could turn on a show and do some crafts or something,” the other girl said warmly. “I haven’t done anything with my hands all term, I think they’re starting to degenerate.” She giggled and held her hands up in front of Jiwoo’s face, fingers splayed rigidly as she childishly exposed the spaces between them.

Jiwoo grinned as she brought her own hands up to wind her fingers carefully into the gaps of Chaewon’s. Her body swelled with a blooded sweep of nervousness, hyperconscious of the perspiration gathering in the folds of her palms. 

“Cool,” Jiwoo shook their knotted hands in a show of glee. “I have  _ tons _ of multicolored paper, so we have to do some kind of origami. It’s mandatory.”

Chaewon chuckled then, tilting her head until the blonde curls tumbled away from her shoulder. She eyed the floor through her eyelashes before bringing her gaze to match Jiwoo’s again. The space between them hummed with gentle tension and warmth, and Jiwoo wondered if it were possible for her chest to burst from such energy.

The two girls agreed to meet up later that evening to eat dinner before going back to Chaewon’s room for crafts. For the rest of the afternoon, Jiwoo was bubbling over with excitement, but once again like it had so many times before, the excitement’s edges became tinged with a cool layer of gray fear, making the pulse in her throat a hammering one rather than one that fluttered. 

She wanted to ask her to be more than friends tonight, but the fear of losing her friend or ruining something so wonderful over a desire so selfish; she was scared of Chaewon seeing her as a freak for liking her or for wanting to love her. She considered canceling as the evening hovered on the horizon, calling it off to cool off and let her feelings fizzle out again, but she resolved that doing such a thing would be inauthentic in a way that bordered on lying. 

So, Jiwoo met with Chaewon as planned. They met in the cafeteria and lovingly complained about the state of the offerings this evening until their appetites were satisfied, and they walked quickly through the brisk air to Chaewon’s room. 

“Dang,” Jiwoo shivered as Chaewon closed the door behind them. “It’s freezing in here.” 

“I know,” Chaewon laughed, dropping her bag by the door to hurriedly slide the windows shut. “We keep the windows open even though it’s cold outside...We kind of like it cold.” She swiped a blanket from her bed and draped it around Jiwoo’s shoulders once they were across from one another again. “I’ll keep you warm while you’re here. I promise you won't be too cold, okay?”

Jiwoo’s skin flushed, and she nodded, “Okay.” 

They turned on a movie they’d both seen, letting their minds idly listen as they whispered sweetly to each other and folded crisp divisions in paper. Jiwoo kept hers hidden from view as she worked on it, her heart hammering as she foresaw what could happen. All of the folds of her fortune teller would lead to her confession, each opening a straight shot into the secret compartments of her beating heart where one could read every intimate detail of her feelings if they so desired. 

“Okay, here,” Jiwoo propped herself up on her elbows and peered at Chaewon through her eyelashes. “Pick a color.”

Chaewon hummed, tapping her lower lip in thought. She pointed enthusiastically at the rosy pink nearest Jiwoo’s face, finally, and set her hands in her lap patiently as she watched the paper open and close its pincers around the air for each letter of the color’s name. 

“Now a flower,” Jiwoo breathed, gaze fixed on the tiny drawings she’d colored on the flaps. 

“Tulip.”

“T,” Jiwoo closed and reopened the catcher for each letter, her voice shaking minutely as she whispered. “U. L. I. P.” 

Her fingers carefully took the slip of paper between them, folding it up to reveal Chaewon’s fortune. 

“Let me see,” she said, taking the craft from Jiwoo.

_ Can I kiss you? _

Chaewon’s face froze, her features settling into an expression of pure awe: eyes wide, eyebrows high, lips slightly parted. She drew her gaze to Jiwoo’s, motionless still as her pulse made her skin heavy and damp with the whole slew of thoughts with question marks and rapid-fire-feelings that blazed through her brain. 

“I…”

“It’s okay if you don’t want to,” Jiwoo was sitting back on her heels now, eyes fixed submissively on the floor. “I’ve liked you for a while, and I love being your friend, and I don’t want that to stop, so I just figured...I figured I should tell you. I’m sorry if that makes you uncomfortable—” 

“I’m not uncomfortable,” Chaewon interrupted Jiwoo with a shake of her head. “I’m just surprised. Um,” she smiled a little. “Yeah, you can kiss me.”

Jiwoo raised her eyebrows, “Really? Are you sure?” She asked, already leaning closer to the other girl who simply nodded her consent. With that, Jiwoo carefully cupped the curve of Chaewon’s cheek, pressing her lips squarely to the petal of her mouth. 

It was sweet, both girls hesitant as they subtly made the ghosts of movements before pulling away. They looked at one another then, each studying the other as though they’d never seen any features like the ones before them. Chaewon curiously brought her fingertips up to brush against the top of Jiwoo’s cheek, her hand giving gentle pressure into the soft flesh affectionately. Jiwoo glowed with happiness as she began to smile, shyly looking down at the gap between their bodies. 

Neither had ever felt so much relief; they were each entering a new world simultaneously alone and together. They couldn’t help but giggle at the absurdity of the evening before sweetly kissing again, marking the second of many more loving exchanges to come, each of them a reward for a newly grown tree of courage that could never be soiled again.


End file.
